What Different Colors Represented in the Medieval Ages

James Wade of MedievalMadness took a vivid look at how certain colors were perceived during the Middle Ages, with each hue making a certain statement about social class, purity, royalty, and religion.

White was the symbol of purity, while red symbolized sin. Blue represented the Virgin Mary. Black started out as evil but eventually came to represent the church, and purple always symbolized wealth, as it was very expensive to make. Stripes and plaids, however, were considered quite scandalous.

The problem could have been due to the fact that that visually, for the medievals at least, patterns were okay because they had foreground shapes of a lighter color on dominant backgrounds that were darker. But Stripes, along with checks and spots were a medieval no no – just a confusing mass of colors. …Even striped animals became creatures to fear. The tiger the hyena, the wasp, even the poor zebra. They were all included in Satan’s bestiary.